In the production of many types of food products, some unused wet processed food portions are sometimes left as trimmings, shreds, offcuts, fragments, and so forth, after a batch run or other production run. Also, small quantities of processed food product that may not conform to a desired shape or configuration may be rejected and not used in a commercial product. Ideally, such small quantities are combined with larger quantities for use as rework in subsequent food production. This often requires heating, mechanical grinding, milling or other processing steps to reform the processed food into a more convenient or stable form, which can lead to difficulties.
Dual-density baked goods, such as cookies, which contain chocolate pieces distributed in a base cake, are difficult to rework for re-use. Conventional mechanical milling or grinding procedures will indiscriminately grind the entire material. Mechanical grinding tends to generate heat in the material, which may melt chocolate pieces or similar heat-sensitive components dispersed within the baked goods. Ideally, to reclaim diverse components of cookie productions, for instance, the base cake would be separated from the chocolate pieces distributed therein and converted into a shelf-stable, re-usable dough ingredient retaining flavor and texture while the chocolate pieces separately would be recovered in a substantially physically intact, non-melted form for re-use.
Arrangements are needed for recovering diverse components of dual-density processed foods at a high recovery rate in a shelf-stable, food grade, functional form for re-use. The invention addresses the above and other needs in an efficient and economically feasible manner.